1 / 1

download image
This image is in the public domain. You can copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes. Learn more about our image policies.

Shown from the shoulders up, a man with peachy skin looks off to our left as he holds the feathered end of an arrow up in a hand resting along the bottom edge of this vertical portrait painting. Shown against a marine-blue background, he looks into the distance with hazel eyes under bushy eyebrows. He has a long, bumped nose, and his full, pale pink lips are closed. His round cheeks are tinged with pink, and there is a hint of a five-o-clock shadow around his mouth and jawline. Chestnut-brown, curly hair hangs to the base of his neck, and wispy curls fall across his forehead from under his tall, chocolate-brown cap. The cap has a small gold pin high over the ear we can see. The man wears a garnet-red jacket with a black collar over a white collarless shirt decorated with five black, narrow bands below the neckline. The fingers of his right hand, to our left, rest with the fingertips braced along on the bottom edge of the painting, as if along a ledge. He pinches the shaft of an arrow with his index finger and thumb, so we see the sienna-brown feathers. He wears a gold ring embedded with a small blue gem near the first knuckle of his ring finger.

Hans Memling

Portrait of a Man with an Arrow, c. 1470/1475

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 39

Medium

oil on panel

Dimensions

painted surface: 31.3 x 25.1 cm (12 5/16 x 9 7/8 in.)
overall (panel): 31.9 x 25.8 cm (12 9/16 x 10 3/16 in.)

framed: 40.2 x 32.7 x 6.4 cm (15 13/16 x 12 7/8 x 2 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1937.1.42

Artists / Makers

Hans Memling (artist) Netherlandish, active c. 1465 - 1494

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Provenance

British private collection, until 1895.[1] (Bourgeois Frères, Cologne), in 1895.[2] Baron Albert Oppenheim [1834-1912], Cologne, from 1895; purchased 1912 by (F. Kleinberger and Co., New York); sold 5 January 1916 to Michael Dreicer [1868-1921], New York;[3] bequest 1921 to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (acc. no. 22.60.45); returned 8 March 1933 to Michael Dreicer's widow, Maisie Dreicer Whyte [1889-1976, née Shainwald, from 1923 Mrs. Jardine Bell Whyte, and from 1935 Baroness de Kerchove];[4] (M. Knoedler & Co., New York);[5] purchased February 1936 by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[6] gift 1937 to NGA.

[1] According to a letter of 17 November 1912, from Friedländer to Kleinberger in the Kleinberger archives held by the Department of European Paintings, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, under Bouts, Portrait of a Man (acc. no. 14.40.644); information supplied by Lorne Campbell, letter of 28 August 1980 to John Hand, in NGA curatorial files.

[2] Friedländer letter cited in note 1.

[3] Information about Kleinberger's purchase and sale of the painting is according to the Kleinberger archives held by the Department of European Paintings, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; see the letter of 6 September 1979 from Mary Sprinson to John Hand, in NGA curatorial files, which was sent with a copy of the Kleinberger card for the painting.

[4] Letter cited in note 3, which was sent with copies of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's original catalogue card for the painting. Mrs. Dreicer Whyte obtained the painting from the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a result of the contestation of Michael Driecer's will by his heirs.

[5] The painting is number 1427 in Knoedler's Painting Stock Book 8 (stock numbers A1-A2680, January 1928-November 1943, M. Knoedler & Co. Records, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles). The entry is listed under Mrs. Whyte, and there is an added reference "A.S. Drey July 21 / 33."

[6] The purchase date is recorded in Mellon records documenting the gift to NGA, copies in NGA curatorial files. The sale date is recorded in the Knoedler stock book (see n. 5) as June 1936; this could have been when payment was completed.

Associated Names

Bourgeois Frères
Dreicer, Michael
Kleinberger Gallery
Knoedler & Company, M.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, The
Oppenheim, Albert, Baron
Private Collection (NGA Former Owner)
de Kerchove, Maisie Shainwald Dreicer Whyte

Exhibition History

1902: Exposition des primitifs flamands et d'art ancien, Hôtel de Gouvernement Provincial, Bruges, 1902, no. 70.

1912: Exposition de la miniature, Hôtel Goffinet, Brussels, 1912, no. 2031.

1994: Hans Memling, Groeningemuseum, Bruges, Belgium, 1994, no. 11, repro.

2005: The Portraits of Memling, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid; Groeningemuseum, Bruges; The Frick Collection, New York, 2005, no. 13 [Madrid] and 11 [Bruges], repro.

2018: Michel Sittow: Estonian Painter at the Courts of Renaissance Europe, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia, 2018, no. 7, repro.

Technical Summary

Comparison with the x-radiograph shows that the bottom and left edges have been filled and extended over what was originally unpainted wood. Thus the sitter's hand originally occupied the corner of the painting, with his fingertips at the painting's margin. X-ray fluorescence indicates the presence of modern pigments such as cadmium yellow, zinc white, and Prussian blue in the extended portions of the hand and along all four edges. At some point after these extensions were made the original panel was set into a new mount visible on all four sides as exposed wood.[1] The face, hair, and hat are in good condition with some scattered areas of abrasion and inpainting in the sitter's proper left cheek.

The background was originally a bright blue-green, but the surface layer has discolored, accounting for its present dark appearance. Patches of bright blue are still visible under the microscope, especially at the edge of the hair.[2] The light appearance of the background in the x-radiograph is apparently due to the thick layer of azurite in this area. In the x-radiograph the background shows a wide traction crackle not visible on the surface. A change in the contour of the sitter's hair at the right is visible in infrared photographs and, more clearly, in infrared reflectography. The boundary of the hair was moved further to the right here.

[1] These dimensions include the areas that have been filled and extended.

[2] Two portraits in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Portrait of a Man by Dieric Bouts (acc. no. 14.40.644) and Portrait of an Old Man by Memling (acc. no. 14.40.648), which were together with the Portrait of a Man with an Arrow in a British private collection and in the Oppenheim collection, have also been set into new panels. Friedlander 1919/1920, 107-108, reported that the portraits were all in one frame when Oppenheim acquired them.

Bibliography

1899: Kaemmerer, Ludwig. Memling. Bielefeld and Leipzig, 1899: 20-21, fig. 16.

1900: Nieuwbarn, M. C. Hans Memling. Leipzig, 1900: no. 52, repro.

1900: Voll, Karl. Review of Memling by Ludwig Kaemmerer. In Kunstchronik N.F. 12 (1900/1901): 115.

1902: Hulin de Loo, Georges. Exposition de tableaux flamands des XIVe, XVe, et XVIe siècles. Catalogue critique. Exh. cat. Hôtel du Gouvernement Provincial, Bruges. Ghent, 1902: 17, no. 70.

1902: Hymans, Henri. "L'Exposition des primitifs flamands à Bruges." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 28 (1902): 292, repro. opp. 294, etching by J. Vyboud (repr. as a book, Paris, 1902: 60).

1903: Friedländer, Max J. "Die Brügger Leihausstellung von 1902." Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 26 (1903): 82.

1903: Mont, Pol de. L'Evolution de la peinture néerlandaise aux XIVe, XVe et XVIe siècles et l'exposition de Bruges. Haarlem, 1903: no. 106, repro.

1903: Weale, W. H. James. "The Early Painters of the Netherlands as Illustrated by the Bruges Exhibitiion of 1902." The Burlington Magazine 1 (1903): 336.

1904: Molinier, Émile. Collection du Baron Albert Oppenheim. Tableaux et objets d'art. Paris, 1904: 10, no. 25, pl. XXII.

1906: Voll, Karl. Die altniederländische Malerei von Jan van Eyck bis Memling. Leipzig, 1906: 188-189, 225.

1906: Wurzbach, Alfred von. Niederlandisches Kunstler-Lexikon. 3 vols. Vienna, 1906-1911: 2(1910):140.

1907: Vollmer, Hans. "Memling." In Thieme-Becker. 37 vols. Leipzig, 1907-1950: 26(1926):376.

1912: Fierens-Gevaert, Hippolyte. "Correspondance de Belgique. L'Exposition de la miniature à Bruxelles." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 7 (1912): 194-195.

1916: Friedländer, Max J. Von Eyck bis Bruegel. Berlin, 1916: 179.

1919: Friedländer, Max J. "About Some of Hans Memling's Pictures in the United States." Art in America 8 (1919/1920): 107-108, fig. 2.

1922: Wehle, Harry B. "The Michael Dreicer Collection." Bulletin of The Metropolitan Museum of Art 17 (1922): 100, 102, repro.

1924: Friedländer, Max. Die altniederländische Malerei. 14 vols.. Berlin and Leiden, 1924-1937. Berlin, 1934: 6:44, 131, no. 85. (English transl. 14 vols. Leiden, 1967-1976. Leiden, 1971: 6 pt.1:8-29, 56, 130, no. 85, pl. 119.)

1924: Metropolitan Museum of Art. Catalogue of Paintings. 7th ed. Compiled by Bryson Burroughs. New York, 1924: 221 (8th ed. 1926: 233; 9th ed. 1931: 241).

1926: Stein, Wilhelm. "Die Bildnisse von Roger van der Weyden." Jahrbuch der königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen (Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen) 47 (1926): 30-31.

1927: Fierens-Gevaert, Hippolyte, and Paul Fierens. Histoire de la peinture flamande des origines à la fin du XVe siècle. 3 vols. Paris and Brussels, 1927-1929: 3:62, 72.

1934: Huisman, Georges. Memlinc. Paris, 1934: 149.

1935: Fierens, Paul. Memling. Paris, 1935: no. 13, repro.

1937: Cortissoz, Royal. An Introduction to the Mellon Collection. Boston, 1937: 35.

1937: Jewell, Edward Alden. "Mellon's Gift." Magazine of Art 30, no. 2 (February 1937): 73.

1939: Bazin, Germain. Memling. Paris, 1939: 20, pl. 6.

1939: Kantorowicz, Ernst H. "The Este Portrait by Roger van der Weyden." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 3 (1939/1940): 178, fig. 32c.

1941: De Tolnay, Charles. "Flemish Paintings in the National Gallery of Art." Magazine of Art 34 (April 1941): 186, 200, repro. 187.

1941: Held, Julius S. "Masters of Northern Europe, 1430-1660, in the National Gallery." Art News 40, no. 8 (June 1941): 11, repro. 13.

1941: Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 132, no. 42.

1942: Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 240, repro. 39.

1949: Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 58, repro.

1954: Buttin, Charles. "La flèche des juges du camp." Armes anciennes 1 (1954): 59, pl. 20.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 304, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 89.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture: Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 78, repro.

1968: Nickel, Helmut. "Ceremonial Arrowheads from Bohemia." Metropolitan Museum of Art Journal 1 (1968): 78, fig. 31.

1968: Whinney, Margaret. Early Flemish Painting. New York and Washington, 1968: 89, pl. 55.

1969: Corti, Maria, and Giorgio T. Faggin. L'opera completa di Memling. Milan, 1969: 111, no. 111, repro.

1969: Wuyts, L. "Aantekeningen bij een vermeend portret van Jean Lefèvre door Rogier van der Weyden." Jaarboek van het Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen (1969): 82, fig. 14.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 230, repro.

1975: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 131, repro., no. 127.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 130, no. 121, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 266, repro.

1986: Hand, John Oliver and Martha Wolff. Early Netherlandish Painting. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1986: 188-193, repro. 189.

1994: Vos, Dirk de. Hans Memling: The Complete Works. Translated by Ted Alkins. Antwerp and Ghent, 1994: no. 29, 146-147, color fig.

2004: Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 58, no. 41, color repro.

2007: Lane, Barbara G. Hans Memling: Master Painter in Fifteenth-Century Bruges. London, 2009: 80-81, 319, 67.

2007: Michiels, Alfred. Hans Memling. New York, 2007: 206-207, color fig.